So Ollie and Blackpool DID make it after all!! Deservedly so? Possibly, but Cardiff contributed so much to that gripping play-off final - it’d be scandalous for Dave Jones to be overlooked by the club’s new board and not be allowed to continue as manager.

The Play-Offs. Scourge of fans who suffer in them, or the best way to gain promotion depending on your point of view. I’ve suffered 2 penalty shoot-out heartaches as a Bluenose in play-off semi-finals, but also seen young Darren Carter score from 12 yards at Cardiff’s Millenium to send Blues into the Premiership at Norwich’s expense in 2002. They’re batty, unpredictable and a right old tinder-box of emotions. So going to report on play-off games as a neutral is just fabulous.

On the train down to London on my way to Upton Park for West Ham/Man City on talkSPORT later. But KISS have dominated this week rather than football for a change. After all, the boys are over here on their first FULL UK tour since 1996. I saw their last indoor show in this country, which was in March 1999 at Wembley Arena, and it was a poor show with poor performances from at least 2 original band members (who didn’t last much longer in the make-up reunited version of the band) and I pronounced to my mates as we left the Arena that we’d never see KISS tour here again.

One of the great advantages in working as a freelance sports journalist is that it affords you the opportunity to work for a number of different organisations and develop new contacts and associates that can prove vital in years to come.

When is a penalty not a penalty? Or, more accurately, when is a non-penalty a penalty? Answer – when it’s at Villa Park against the Blues. That’s all I’m saying on the matter.